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Nab to fcc to remove main studio rule

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

Walk of Fame Participant
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/105423/nab-to-fcc-eliminate-the-main-studio-rule

In response to the FCC’s proposal to eliminate its main studio rule, including the related staffing and equipment requirements, the NAB offered enthusiastic support in comments.

NAB wrote: “The rule was designed to facilitate input from the community and station participation in community activities through physical access to the local studio, and was conceived nearly eighty years ago.

Today, however, widespread use of electronic communications enables efficient interaction between stations and their communities of license without the need for the physical presence of a studio.”

In addition, the association said: “The elimination of the main studio rule and related staffing and equipment requirements will reduce regulatory burdens on broadcasters, resulting in cost savings and other efficiencies that will allow stations to better serve their audiences.”

The main studio rule was conceived at a time when physical access to a studio was likely the principal means for viewers and listeners to interact with station personnel.

“Audiences certainly had the ability to mail letters to stations,” NAB noted, “but in 1940, only 39% of U.S. households had telephones. Even when the main studio rule was most recently revised in 1998, many of the revolutionary ways in which stations and their audiences interact today had yet to be developed.
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Hubbing is the talking point here.
 
I think the local studio requirement left the train station some time ago. Non-coms get waivers quite easily and have for many years. There isn't anything local on hundreds of those stations.

Commercial group owned stations have consolidated into clusters long ago, either by getting waivers or just by circumventing the rules by having an office with a Mackie mixer and a microphone in it. Stations that want to have a local presence have one, and those who don't want anything more than a sales office figure out a way to do that. You might as well make it legal.
 
Chuck said:
I think the local studio requirement left the train station some time ago. Non-coms get waivers quite easily and have for many years. There isn't anything local on hundreds of those stations.

Commercial group owned stations have consolidated into clusters long ago, either by getting waivers or just by circumventing the rules by having an office with a Mackie mixer and a microphone in it. Stations that want to have a local presence have one, and those who don't want anything more than a sales office figure out a way to do that. You might as well make it legal.
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Sinclair and Nexstar has to be the most notable ones that doing this the hubbing method and they are lobbying this move for their smaller DMA stations for local news.

Iheart and Cumulus already do the radio version of hubbing though.
 
Looks like the report and order has been issued to go in effect at the end of October.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Sinclair and Nexstar has to be the most notable ones that doing this the hubbing method and they are lobbying this move for their smaller DMA stations for local news.

Iheart and Cumulus already do the radio version of hubbing though.
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"Hubbing" means the production of full programming and the delivery of content to individual transmitters from a central location outside the markets involved without going through a local "studio".

At the moment, I don't know of any iHeart stations that are run that way. iHeart's Premium Choice consists of making program talent available to local markets in bits and pieces so it can be integrated with music, service elements and commercials locally in each market. iHeart's syndication division provides individual programs to stations where they are locally integrated with commercials and things like news, traffic and such.

Obviously, with the elimination of the main studio rule, stations can be operated from outside the market and hubbing will be possible in many cases. Even if a station has local talent, that talent can deliver content to the hub where it is integrated with music and commercials and delivered from the hub to the transmitter. However, that is not being done now.
 
Chuck said:
Commercial group owned stations have consolidated into clusters long ago, either by getting waivers or just by circumventing the rules by having an office with a Mackie mixer and a microphone in it.
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The more expensive requirement would seem to be “full-time management and staff during normal business hours”.
 
DavidEduardo said:
"Hubbing" means the production of full programming and the delivery of content to individual transmitters from a central location outside the markets involved without going through a local "studio".
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I learned what hubbing was when KNTV 11 became the NBC affiliate for San Francisco. I believe production, studios and master control for KNTV was located in Southern Californian in early 2000ish.

Is that still the case David?
 
On Party-Line Vote, FCC Votes To End Main Studio Rule

clyburn1024-150x120.jpg
Fiery dissent from the FCC's two Democratic Commissioners couldn't sway at least one of their three Republican colleagues to vote alongside them on a matter of keen interest to radio and TV station owners. As a result, in a 3-2 party-line vote, the elimination of the main studio rule is on its way to fruition, putting an end to a regulation crafted — as Commissioner Brendan Carr noted in its comments — just months before the start of World War II.

More...
 
Which means iHeart and Cumulus will close every one of their offices and studios coast to coast!!!!

(No, not really)
 
http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n34809

Here is an update

The FCC has eliminated the broadcast main studio rule, while retaining the requirement that stations maintain a local or toll-free number to ensure consumers have ready access to local stations. The main studio rule, adopted nearly 80 years ago, currently requires each AM radio, FM radio and TV broadcast station to have a main studio located in or near its local community. The rule was originally implemented to speed input from community members and the station's participation in community activities.

The Commission says that it recognizes the public can access information via broadcasters' online public file, and stations and community members can interact directly through alterative means such as e-mail, social media and phone. Given this, the Commission found that requiring broadcasters to maintain a main studio is outdated and unnecessarily burdensome.

The Commission also notes that the elimination of the main studio rule should "produce substantial cost-saving benefits" for broadcasters that can be directed toward such things as programming, equipment upgrades, newsgathering and other services that benefit consumers. It will also make it easier for broadcasters to prevent stations in small towns from going dark and to launch new stations in rural areas.

In a statement, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, "The record shows that main studios are no longer needed to enable broadcasters to be responsive to their communities of license. That's because the public these days is much more likely to interact with stations (including accessing stations' public files) online. Additionally, technology allows broadcast stations to produce local news even without a nearby studio. The record also shows that getting rid of the rule will help broadcasters serve viewers and listeners, especially those in small towns and rural areas where the cost of compliance dissuades broadcasters from even launching stations."
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Critics confused this as a local talent rule. The purpose was to allow local access to public files. Once the FCC required stations to post public files on their web sites, this rule became superfluous. But there has never been a requirement that stations have local talent. That's why local stations have been able to run syndicated shows like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for over 25 years.
 
I'm still not sure how Minot got mixed up with all of this. There wasn't even a requirement that the radio stations be on the air at 1am.
 
gr8oldies said:
I'm still not sure how Minot got mixed up with all of this. There wasn't even a requirement that the radio stations be on the air at 1am.
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Rosenworcel demonstrated that stupidity isn't confined to a party or the president. As I posted elsewhere, Rosenworcel voted to put public files on the internet when the Democrats were in charge. Now that Republicans are in charge, she has become an extension of the party of no. Had Tom Wheeler proposed the same thing (as he intended), she would have voted for it.

If Rosenworcel is so worried about what radio stations do on weekends after midnight, all she has to do it propose a new rule. But that's too much work. Much easier to dredge up the past.
 
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